Secrets of the Spider's Web
"Secrets of the Spider's Web" is the eighth episode of the second season of Wild Kratts, originally airing on PBS Kids on October 31, 2012. Overall, it is the 48th episode of the series. The episode was written and directed by Chris Kratt. On February 25, 2014, "Secrets of the Spider's Web" was first released on DVD as part of Wild Kratts: Bugging Out. In this episode, after a failed testing of climbing and safety gear in the lowland tropical rainforests of Central America, the Wild Kratts stumble upon a golden orb-weaver spider. Knowing that the silk created by spiders like the orb-weaver are tough and lightweight, the Wild Kratts set out to replicate spider silk and to improve their climbing gear. On the other hand, fashion designer Donita Donata and her henchman, Dabio, also familiar with spider silk, head to Central America to acquire spiders to gather their silk for dresses. Plot The episode begins with a live action segment, which shows the Kratt brothers rappelling on cliffs while comparing what they are doing to spiders and their ropes to spider silk. Afterwards, they ask their "What if?" question and the show transitions into the cartoon segment. In the lowland tropical rainforests of Central America, Chris is climbing a cliff to test out a new rope created by Aviva. However, the rope snaps. Chris tries to safely land on the ground, but all his safety gear fail, and he ends up on Martin. Then a golden orb-weaver spider descends upon Chris's face, which Martin names Orbit. Knowing that spider silk is a tough and lightweight natural material, the Wild Kratts get to work on improving their climbing gear. Meanwhile, at Donita Donata's mansion, Donita, frustrated with her current fabrics, gets trapped in a spider web. Liking the texture she orders her henchman, Dabio, to take her to Central America to acquire spiders to gather more silk to make dresses. While the Tortuga crew works on the formula for spider silk, the Kratt brothers, miniaturized, watch as Orbit builds a web. Once Orbit finishes, a bee gets stuck on the web. Orbit stuns it and wraps it in her silk. Donita and Dabio also end up stuck in the web, breaking it. At this time, Aviva is able to create a material that mimics orb-weaver spider silk in looks and function. This is enough for the Kratt brothers to activate their Creature Power Suits. Chris makes his move by scaring Dabio, while Martin frees the spiders Dabio had sucked up. Dabio runs away screaming and begs Donita for help, but Donita only gives him her case of captured spiders while she fills up his empty one. The Kratt brothers strike once again and free the spiders. Donita, although angry at Dabio's incompetence, grows suspicious after finding a large string of spider silk on the ground. Later, she disguises her jet as a bird and scares away the Kratt brothers, and begins sucking up the spiders she lost to them. The Kratt brothers try to stop her but are unable to because they have no more material to expel from their nozzles. After Donita leaves, the two see Orbit eating her own webbing, and they realize that orb-weaver spiders can reuse their webbing by eating them, so they begin collecting theirs. All set to defeat Donita and free the spiders, Martin makes his first move by firing a string of webbing at Donita's jet and securing it by wrapping it around the edge of a cliff. The silk stops the jet midair, but Donita frees her jet by cutting the string with large tailor scissors. Chris, on the other hand, is building a giant spider web between two crevices. Martin arrives to help, and they quickly finish, and when Donita's jet arrives, her jet gets caught in the web. Donita orders Dabio to get her jet off the web, but Dabio trips, and they fall and get stuck on the web, allowing the Kratt brothers to free the spiders. Later, the Wild Kratts summarize what they have found out about spider silk, while at Donita's mansion, Donita receives some synthetic spider silk fabrics from the Wild Kratts, which she adores. The show transitions into the ending live action segment, which shows the Kratt brothers making a spider web using rappelling ropes. Afterwards, they conclude the episode by saying "Keep on creature adventuring; we'll see you on the creature trail!" Characters *Chris Kratt *Martin Kratt *Aviva *Koki *Jimmy Z *Donita Donata *Dabio Animals Animation Note: Featured animals are in bold. *'American Golden Silk Orbweaver': Orbit *Garden Spider *European Honey Bee *Central American Banana Gecko Live Action Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia. *Camel spider *Orb weaver *Chilean rose tarantula *Huntsman spider *Lynx spider *Moth *Dirce butterfly (called Butterfly) Trivia *The 1st "spider" that was shown at the beginning of the live action segment was technically a camel spider. Although camel spiders are arachnids, they aren't true spiders. Key Facts and Creature Moments *Birds are the major predators of orb-weaver spiders. Gallery Spiderpowersuit..PNG|Chris and Martin in Spider Power spiderweb.wildkratts.PNG|Chris has just landed on Martin. spider.web.02.PNG|Aviva has the inspiration for artificial spider silk now. spider.web.wildkratts.PNG aviva.spider.silk..PNG|Aviva is holding an approximately 25 inches long string of spider silk. spider.web.03.PNG|Chris and Martin are kneeling. spider.web.04.PNG spider.web.06.PNG|Orbit, the golden orb-weaver spider, is building a spider net of silk. spider.web.tortuga.PNG|In the Tortuga, Jimmy is stirring Aviva's spider silk 1.0 liquid. At the same time, a scan of Orbit is visible on the large monitor. donita.spider's.web.PNG|Donita Donata wants dresses made of spider silk! spider.web.09.PNG|Three spider species are shown on Donita's tablet computer. spider.web.10.PNG|Jimmy is holding a target Aviva is aiming on with her silk shooter. spider.web.11.PNG spider.web.12.PNG|Chris is climbing up Orbit's net. spider.web.14.PNG|Chris is watching Orbit building the fang spiral made of sticky silk. spider.web.15.PNG spider.web.16.PNG aviva.spider.web.PNG|Aviva is carrying her silk shooter. spider.web.17.PNG|Donita has already sucked in one unlucky spider. spider.web.18.PNG|Aviva is stressed. spider.web.19.PNG|Aviva is shooting her spider silk 2.0 at Jimmy. jimmy.z.spider.web.PNG|Jimmy is stucking at the wall with the spider silk 2.0. spider.web.20.PNG|Donita is sucking in an unlucky spider directly from it's net. aviva.spider.silk.2.PNG spider.web.21.PNG|Chris and Martin are going to scare away Dabio and free his captured spiders. spider.power.disk.PNG|Cutoffless split screen mode: Chris and Martin are activating Spider Power (the Creature Power Suits are glowing up) spider.power.wk.PNG|Dabio is feeling scared by Chris in Spider Power. Hover Cycle. Wild Kratts.03.PNG|Aviva is riding her Hovering Bike. SotSW.png|The Wild Kratts team is trying Aviva's new rope. It's visible that the episode was written by Chris Kratt. SotSW 2.png|Chris is having to climb up a very difficult part of the cliff. SotSW 3.png|The rope is snapping so Chris is scared. SotSW 4.png|Martin and Aviva are scared for Chris. SotSW 5.png|The parachute as first safety gear fails because it is snapping at a tree branch. SotSW 6.png|Martin: "Yeah!" SotSW 7.png SotSW 8.png|There's a spider – Orbit between Chris and Martin. SotSW 9.png SotSW 10.png SotSW 11.png SotSW 12.png|Chris is watching miniaturized Martin. SotSW 13.png SotSW 14.png SotSW 15.png SotSW 16.png|Chris is recording while Martin is playing "guitar" with the spider silk and is singing too. SotSW 17.png|Chris is hanging down at a silk. SotSW 18.png|Jimmy's face is covered by Aviva's spider silk 1.0 (light blue color) SotSW 19.png|Spiders produce six different silk types (shown on the large monitor), but Aviva can't even produce one. SotSW 20.png|Chris is stucking at a sticky spider silk with his feet. SotSW 21.png|Chris gets eated when Martin don't help! SotSW 22.png|Martin is inside Dabio's hair who has just destroyed the spider net. SotSW 23.png|Chris is inside Donita's hair whose view is blocked by spider silk. SotSW 24.png SotSW 25.png|Chris's young face SotSW 26.png|Martin is opening Dabio's case to free the spiders. SotSW 27.png SotSW 28.png SotSW 29.png SotSW 30.png|Chris and Martin are having much fun building many spider silks. SotSW 31.png|Lucky Orbit is eating his/her own spider silk to recycle it. SotSW 32.png|Chris is holding a wad of spider silk that is as thick as a finger. SotSW 33.png SotSW 34.png|Chris is parachuting at a spider silk parachute. SotSW 35.png|Martin is shooting a spider silk to stop Donita's jet. SotSW 36.png|Chris is building the giant spider web to stop Donita's jet successfully. About his Creature Pod, Koki is telling him that he has to hurry. SotSW 37.png|Martin is arriving at Chris to help him. SotSW 38.png|Happy ending for the Wild Kratts and the spiders, from left to right: Martin, Chris, Koki, Aviva and Jimmy. References Category:Episodes Category:Season 2 Category:Episodes written by Chris Kratt Category:Episodes directed by Chris Kratt Category:Episodes on home video Category:Episodes with Villains Category:Season Two Episodes